International pressure on Israel for a ceasefire steadily increasing with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu however, not to succumb to these pressures by continuing the attacks on the Gaza Strip targeting Al Shifa Hospital under which the command center of Hamas is believed to be located.

“Israel will agree to a ceasefire only in exchange for the release of a ‘large’ number of hostages and not a ‘manipulative release’ by Hamas for public relations purposes,” he clarified today Friday the chairman of the National Security Council, Jachi Hanegbi during a press conference, with Israel setting its own terms.

“Only then will we agree to a ceasefire which will be very limited and short because then we will continue to move towards our war aims,” ​​Hanegby added.

Hanegby also claimed that in talks with US President Joe Biden and other world leaders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resisted calls for ceasefires and humanitarian pauses without releasing hostages.

“We are in the 42nd day of the war and we have not agreed to order the IDF to stop its advance even for a minute,” he said, thus showing that Israel is not going to accept a ceasefire agreement very easily.

“Israel has “bet” a lot on Shifa Hospital”

At the same time, the Israeli forces have been focusing their investigations for days on the Al-Sifah hospital, under which they believe the Hamas command center is located. However, the findings do not seem to be satisfactory so far.

As a BBC columnist comments the evidence provided by Israel, so far, is not convincing in terms of the kind of rhetoric that the Israelis used about how the hospital was set up to suggest that it was a nerve center for the Hamas operation. The findings so far are some Kalashnikov rifles – these are common in the Middle East – a tunnel entrance, one of many in Gaza, some military uniforms and a vehicle rigged with explosives, the British columnist comments.

Proving that Hamas is using Gaza’s medical facilities to cover its operations is a key Israeli goal, and is an accusation Hamas has repeatedly denied.

Israel’s main justification for killing so many people in Gaza is that Hamas is using them as human shields. But if hard evidence of a Hamas headquarters, in Shifa or elsewhere, is not found, then pressure on Israel from the international community to negotiate a ceasefire will intensify.

With a “gun” the hostages

Benjamin Netanyahu claimed he had “strong indications” that hostages were also being held in Al Shifa, after the Israel Defense Forces said the body of a 65-year-old woman who had been abducted from her home in Berri near the Gaza border was discovered in a house near the hospital. The existence of hostages under Al Shifa is yet another “weapon” for Israel to continue its search of the hospital. After all, only with the release of a large number of hostages will he give the “green light” for a ceasefire.

According to Channel 12 during last night’s war cabinet meeting, Netanyahu called US President Joe Biden and urged him to pressure Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to release more hostages.

At the same time, the chairman of the National Security Council in his remarks today said that after the release of the hostages on October 20 and 22, there was a proposal to release 10 more hostages – eight of whom were Thai workers – as well as a proposal to release 15 hostages. However, these were rejected by Netanyahu and the war cabinet, adding that Israel will not agree to a temporary ceasefire for such a small number of hostages, while approximately 240 remain in Gaza.

US President Biden has said from the start that Israel has the right to defend itself, but that it must do so in the right way – that is, by following the laws of war. It is imperative for Israel to prove that Hamas’s main command center lies beneath Al Shifa if it is to continue to have the support of its allies to continue to protect it from international pressure for a ceasefire. If this does not happen then the Israelis know that the pressure for a cease-fire will intensify and then it may have to revise its terms.